Teething Bites: 3 Teething Tips

Two little chompers, front and center!

Babies go through so many difficult phases. Teething is one of the worst. Why? Because it lasts for YEARS - not just days, months. Babies teethe, all the time.

In fact, teething topped the list as the most difficult childhood milestone, trumping potty training, the terrible twos and the first day of school. according to a survey conducted by Infants’ Advil® in April 2015 among 2,000 U.S. parents.

Teething was one thing I was not looking forward to with Liam. Once we got through the sleep regression, which remains the hardest phase for us to date, I breathed a sigh of relief. Only for about 6 weeks though, when we were faced with TEETHING!

I've heard horror stories of babies teething, but so far, teething has not be horrible for us. (Knock on all the wood.) It hasn't been great, but it hasn't been horrible. Liam definitely gets super fussy, doesn't sleep well, and just cries the saddest, most whimpery cry ever. I can take a few sleepless nights, but hearing my baby cry in pain/discomfort and not being able to help him is quite honestly, THE WORST.

I'm not alone, either - according to Infants’ Advil®, 29 percent of moms and 16 percent of dads admit to having cried as a result of watching their child teethe. Been there, done that.

Currently, Liam has two teeth with three on the horizon. I'm pretty sure a third tooth on bottom will break through soon, in addition to his top teeth. That's a lot of pain my babe is in!

The kind folks at Infants' Advil reached out to me to let me know they had teamed up with NUK® have teamed to create simple and effective solutions that provide relief for both baby and parent. They kindly provided me with teething tip information, product samples and tips from their survey.

Yay for free stuff to help with Liam's discomfort!

Thankfully, we've been able to manage Liam's pain and discomfort with a few tricks and toys, so I wanted to share some things that have worked for us. Nothing really revolutionary, but they do help!

1. Invest in teething toys. For a few months now, all Liam wants to do is put things in his mouth. It's been kind of hard to determine if that's due to curiosity or teething. We figured it wouldn't hurt to get our hands on some teething toys. If he was teething, they'd help soothe - if not, he could just chew away to his heart's content anyway.

Some of our favorite teething toys include The First Years John Deere Massaging Corn Teether, Nuby Bug A Loop Teether Bead, Nuby Icybite Hard/Soft Teething Keys, Banana Brush and of course, Sophie!2. Use food. Cold and frozen things are awesome for teething babies. Before we had any toys, we just froze wash cloths and gave them to Liam to suck on. He also enjoys gumming the bottoms of our cold beer cans and bottles. :) We also invested in these feeders. They are not only awesome for bringing to restaurants and keeping Liam occupied, but we can literally stuff anything in there for Liam to chew on. We've put everything from frozen fruit to ice cubes to frozen bagels. Good for helping to relieve pain and be nutritious!

3. Don't be afraid to medicate. Obviously this is personal preference. For me personally, I was hesitate to give Liam medicine at first. After talking to my pediatrician, she assured me that it would be more than fine.
The first time I gave him a pain reliever was after his two-month wellness visit when he was in clear discomfort and had a fever, and it helped so much! Seeing that made me more confident moving for future instances where we've had to give him medicine for illness, or recently - pain!

My biggest tip here is, if you're comfortable with it, don't be afraid to give your babe some relief. S/he will be fine. And don't wait for things to be bad before giving! I should add that my child happens to love oral medications - he gulps down Gripe Water and pain reliever with no issue. He really loved the white grape, dye free flavor of Infants' Advil! (He cried when I was done giving the dosage.)That's all I've got! Like I said - nothing earth shattering or new, but more tried and true. You can do it!

*Disclosure: I was given free product for this post, however all thoughts and opinions are my own, and writing a post was optional.